My Dog Tulip

My Dog Tulip nr

The distinguished British man of letters, Ackerley hardly thought of himself as a dog lover when, well into middle age, he came to adopt Tulip &ndash; a beautiful, yet intolerable 18&ndash;month&ndash;old German shepherd. To his surprise, she turned out to be the love of his life, the &ldquo;ideal friend&rdquo; he had been searching for in vain for so many years. In vivid and sometimes startling detail, the film reveals Tulip&rsquo;s sassy, often erratic behavior (and very canine tastes) and Ackerley&rsquo;s fumbling but determined efforts to ensure an existence of perfect happiness for her.

Reviews from Rotten Tomatoes

My Dog Tulip is as disconcerting and unusual a piece of animation as the 1956 memoir that inspired it, and that is saying a lot.

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times, 10.21.2010

A marvelous animated feature, full of quiet joy, honest sorrow, wisdom and a wealth of clinical detail both excremental and reproductive, all rendered in a charming style approximating the dog drawings of James Thurber.

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune, 01.07.2011

For the most part, the images undulate. They often appear to be melting. That, or they're streaked or smeared and wholly unruly.

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe, 10.14.2010

Words of wisdom keep popping up in My Dog Tulip with gratifying regularity. They're more likely to gratify dog lovers than anyone else, but that's a large group to which I belong...